Last week, I shared with you 3 tools I used to schedule content on social media platforms which, in turn, increased engagement on those platforms and ultimately increasing number of followers. Today, I’d like to share with you how I increased the number of comments on my blog.
Now, it may not seem a lot of comments but compared to years ago when I had almost zero comments on the blog, it’s a vast improvement.
Before I get started, I’d like to ask you a question (the first of many, as you’ll soon find out). What is a blog to you? Is it a platform for you to share your writing on? Is it a platform for your readers to communicate with you? Is a blog still a blog without comments?
Recently I found out that a very popular blog about blogging has decided to disable comments. The blogger has his reasons; he wanted to concentrate more on other forms of engagement especially social media. It may very well be a valid reason but that decision disappointed me for what is a blog without comments?
As Alice* would put it: what is the use of a book without pictures and conversations?
Here are more questions for you to think about:
- Do you reply to each comment on your blog posts?
- When you reply to each comment, do your commenters know that you have replied their comments? Perhaps they asked you questions regarding a specific topic you wrote. How would they know if you’ve replied them?
- When you comment on a blog post as a reader, do you expect a reply? If you do, how do you know if the blogger has replied? Do you check back that blog post over and over just to see if they’ve replied you?
I made a mistake of not replying to comments years ago. There was no excuse to why I didn’t; I was merely lazy. Lazy to reply, lazy to bother. It cost me readers because one by one, they left.
As a reader, sometimes I ask questions on blog posts. I have no idea if the blogger was going to reply my question. So I keep hitting the Refresh button on that blog post daily to see if there was a reply. I’m sure it increased the hits on that blog but it was frustrating for me as a reader. That was years ago. Now, with the sea of blogs that I follow, I can’t be arsed to do that anymore. I’m sure most of you can’t be arsed either. Who has the time to keep hitting the Refresh button?
I figured it was time for a change. I need to get off my arse to reply comments. And it turned out to be one of the best things I did for my blog.
Reply Every Comment
When there are a lot of comments, it also takes a lot of time to reply every single one. But this is time well invested because when I started to think “if people can take time off their busy schedule to leave a comment on my blog post, I surely can respect them by replying their comment.” I may not be able to reply the comments immediately but I will reply them by hook or by crook. Even if the comments are negative ones.
Let the commenter know when their comment is replied.
Next to the anti-spam WordPress plugins, the ReplyMe plugin is the most important and effective one on my blog. What it does is that it emails the commenter that I’ve replied to their comment by showing them my reply. Often people don’t know if their comments are replied and they just move on with their day. For me as a reader, I love it when I get reply notifications from blogs I’ve commented on. I’m able to continue the conversation with the blogger via the comment if I want to. That’s what it is … carrying on the conversation. This increases engagement.
Third-party commenting platforms like Disqus and Lifefyre have a similar feature as well. Non-Wordpress users can use them on their blogs and whenever they reply a comment, an email notification will also be sent to the commenter.
I often get positive feedback from readers that they like that I reply to each comment and that they know that I’ve replied. It’s an honour to hear that because it’s such a far cry from what I used to do years ago, and that’s not to reply comments. It’s a lesson I’ve learned and a mistake I’m never making again.
I hope this post has been helpful to you. As bloggers, we should always allow conversations to start and grow (within reason. Trolls and hateful comments are another kettle of fish) on the blog. When you publish a blog post, you start a conversation with your readers by writing about a topic. When readers leave comments, they carry on the conversation. Let them know you’re listening and that you’re also in the conversation too.
Good luck!
*Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
Thank you so much for this post, I am a new blogger and I want my readers/subscribers and fellow bloggers to comment on my blog post! Which is one of the reasons that I have started doing my Funday Friday Comment Tag posts. I myself have found it is very annoying to me to go to the trouble to leave a comment or question on a blog and then you have to go through all these security procedures to just get a notice “your comment is awaiting moderation”. I reply to all my comments on my blog. I also do not understand why is so frowned upon or just outright said on a blog not to leave a link to your blog in their comments..Why??? I thought this was suppose to be a blogging community and if someone has gone to your post then into the comments, they have read that post, so why does it bother them that you would leave a link to yours. I don’t consider that spam. Spamming to me was when a robot or a computer generates a comment on your blog. This all has been written in a nice, calm and confused voice, not angry voice. Again, thank you so much for this post!!!
Beth and Beauty recently posted..Beth and Beauty’s Random Beauty Haul: Sephora, Nordstrom and Avon!
I understand your frustration and I also do understand why a lot of bloggers don’t like people leaving their blog links in comments. A lot of times, especially in big-time blogs or big-time YouTube channels, bloggers want to be heard. Sure, people can hover over their name that will be linked to their blogs but who has the time to do that? So they leave their blog links along with their comments to at least be seen in the sea of comments in just one blog post.
A lot of the times, you may have also noticed that most comments that come with links aren’t relevant to the blog post at all. They’re usually very short (“great blog!” or “great post!”), doesn’t engage with the blogger and end with a longer comment like “come check out my blog!”. This is when it becomes spammy. So I can see why a lot of bloggers don’t encourage people to leave links behind. But I’d say often, the links left behind in comments aren’t to grab the attention of the blog owner. It’s to grab the attention of other people who leave comments.
People leaving blog links in their comments don’t bother me at all, as long as it’s not just along the lines of “great post! Come check out my blog, I write at blahblah.com and it’s really great and I hope you and your readers come check me out it’s awesome”. I’ve written about really sad things before (on my now-defunct personal blog) and have random people leaving comments like “I love the post, it made me laugh. Come check me out at blahblah.com etc etc”. These sort of comments don’t contribute to the community; they just take and don’t give. Hope this gives you an insight as to why a lot of bloggers don’t like linky links in comments. 🙂
As much as I hate to add another plug-in to my Wordpress blog, I will add ReplyMe, per your suggestion. On my blog, I believe that the commenter has to do something, like click a box or another task, if they want a reply. And so few of my commenters click the box or whatever, so I’m thinking that either they don’t care about a response or they don’t know what they need to do to get an email response. So I will see if ReplyMe increases engagement. Thanks, as always, for the great suggestions.
Allison recently posted..CoverGirl truBlend Liquid Makeup
I highly recommend you give ReplyMe a go. Or a similar plugin that notifies your commenters of your reply. It will make a difference to you and your audience, I’m sure of that. Of all the plugins I have, it’s one of my top 5 that my blog cannot live without. Good luck!
Great post! As both a blogger and a blog reader it drives me crazy not knowing if somebody has replied to my comment or if a reader knows I have replied to their comment. I always reply to comments, even if it is just to say cheers!
citygirl907 recently posted..Covergirl – Wine to Five + FOA Platinum Matte Top Coat Review
Haha I know right? Especially when it comes to me leaving comments in a blog I really like, or a question I hope the blogger would answer. I would keep the page open and hit Refresh so many times during the day, the blogger would think it’s a DOS attack or something! 😛
I couldn’t even begin to guess which blog you are talking about, and while I see the method in their choices, I feel like your taking away what readers want. If someone wants to leave a comment, let them do it there and then, where it is most relevant. I can’t tell you how many times a simple comment has been the solution to my technical problems, when a post itself has been very vague. And it’s not that I want to leave comments everywhere I go, but when I want to – damn it I better be able to lol!
Thanks for the plugin recommendation too. I’ll definitely give this a try.
Kaye recently posted..MY ACNE STORY – THE 14 YEAR TRUTH ABOUT MY SKIN
I didn’t put it on the blog post but it was Copyblogger. Big blog, that one. I didn’t think there was anything wrong in keeping that channel open even if interaction and engagement are much higher via social media. It’s like you said; why take away what readers want? You give them as many channels as possible to interact with you, isn’t that better? Also, is a blog still a blog if no comments are allowed?